Friday, July 25, 2008

Next weekend is the Romance Writers of America conference in San Francisco. Several authors will be attending, and here's where you can find them:

On July 30, 2008, from 5:30-7:30 p.m. in the San Francisco Marriott hotel (Yerba Buena Ballroom), over 500 romance-fiction authors will sign books donated by publishers--with the proceeds of the sales going to literacy charities. RWA has raised over $600,000 for literacy since the inception of the "Readers for Life" Literacy Autographing event.

Harlequin Romance authors signing books are:

Claire BaxterLinda GoodnightCarol GraceBarbara HannayJessica Hart

Also:

Barbara HannayBarbara McMahonJessica Hartalong with editor Lucy Brown

These lovely ladies will be giving a panel entitled "Emotion, Emotion, Emotion: Writing Romance with Global Appeal" from 9:45 to 11:45 on Friday morning (August 1).

Don't forget to enter the contest to win Jessica Hart's "Newlyweds of Convenience" as well as a special tote bag! E-mail hrablog@hotmail.com with the subject line of Jessica, and hurry! The contest closes on Thursday, July 31!

Monday, July 21, 2008

We thought it might be fun to do a short highlight on the second installment of the "Brides For All Seasons" series...so here's Fiona Harper with a little bit about her book, Saying Yes To The Millionaire!

First date: Trafalgar Square, London...

When cautious Fern Chambers is challenged by a friend to say yes to every question, she never expects to spend four days with dreamy Josh Adams in a charity treasure hunt.

First Dance: Covent Garden...

Daredevil millionaire Josh never stays in one place - or with one woman - for long. But Fern is challenging that rule...

First Kiss: The National Gallery...

As the final clue is solved, Josh realises the treasure he's been looking for is, in fact, the beautiful Fern. Can he persuade her to answer yes to his final question, the most important one of all?

The inspiration…

What would you do if you had to say ‘yes’ to every question you were asked? I spotted a similar sentence on a tag line of a New Year article in a magazine. I’m sure you know the sort of article I’m talking about. The kind that encourages you to take up new hobbies and embrace strange fads. I stopped in my tracks and didn’t even bother to read the rest. The lightning bolt had already struck and an idea for a story was brewing. A nice, ordinary girl could get herself into all sorts of trouble if she accepted a challenge like that, couldn’t she?

This spark of a story then combined with another idea. I absolutely love the hit TV show ‘The Amazing Race’ in which teams race each other around the globe trying to beat each other to a million dollars and had been waiting for an excuse to throw a hero and heroine into that pressure-cooker situation where everything they’d been trying to hide would come bubbling to the surface.

And why send them racing round the globe, I thought, when they have the wonderful cosmopolitan city of London on their doorstep? So I set the entire book in London and learned some very interesting facts about the city in the process. So, because she can’t say no to Josh, Fern ends up partnering him in a treasure hunt that last four days. All they have is £10, the clothes on their backs and each other. I’m not telling you if they find the treasure first or not – you’ll have to read the book to find out!

Heroine…

Fern Chambers is a risk analyst for a big insurance company. She spends her days weighing up how dangerous everything is and working out how to avoid it. Unfortunately, that philosophy has spread into her personal life too. Her much-loved older brother died of cancer when she was just a child and, since then, her parents have done their best to protect Fern from the big, bad world. Fern thinks she’s broken free of her parents’ suffocating influence, but old habits die hard and some attitudes and behaviours are so ingrained that it’s going to take a catastrophe to shake her loose…

Hero…

Josh Adams is the boy next door – literally. He was Fern’s brother’s best friend and the boy Fern had a gigantic crush on growing up. In contrast to safety-conscious Fern, Josh is an adventurer and a wanderer, never happy unless he’s moving – preferably at high speed with an accompanying adrenaline rush. Now he’s back in town and has decided to rope Fern into helping him out in the Secret London treasure hunt.

Only he hadn’t anticipated noticing how much ‘little’ Fern has grown up, or the sudden need to plant kisses on her in front of major London landmarks. So, as Fern and Josh race around London, they discover surprising things about the magical city, about themselves and especially about each other…

The Desert Prince's Proposal by Nicola Marsh: "Warm-hearted, fresh, tender and compelling...the perfect book to lose yourself into on a hot summer night!" Cataromance, 4 stars

"Shirley Jump's Boardroom Bride and Groom (4.5) is well plotted, and all of the characters are beautifully realized. While it's often humorous, keep some tissues handy too." Romantic Times, 4.5

And a few special releases this month:

Chosen As The Sheikh's Wife by Liz Fielding, as part of the 100 Arabian Nights release! "Full of humour, romance, wit and emotion, Chosen as the Sheikh’s Wife sparkles with all the warmth, charm and flair which readers have come to associate with Liz Fielding! Fast-paced, romantic, dramatic and absolutely impossible to put down, readers will not easily forget this wonderful story of redemption, new beginnings and hope by a wonderful storyteller who is in a class of her own!" (Cataromance)

Also from Liz as part of the Mills and Boon Centenary collection: "In THE TEMP AND THE TYCOON, Liz Fielding brings together two opposites in a story that takes the reader on a journey of laughter and misadventure, romantic tension all the way to an ending full of joy and emotion." (eharlequin reader review)

What else is up and coming? Barbara McMahon, Barbara Hannay and Jessica Hart are presenting a workshop at RWA Nationals in San Francisco called "Emotion, Emotion, Emotion, Writing Romance with Global Appeal". For those attending the conference, it's at 9:45 on the Friday.

Several Harlequin Romance authors will be at the conference, as well as Romance editors.

Shirley Jump will be at the Midwest Writers' Workshop teaching an all-day intensive workshop on writing the romance as well as several shorter workshops on other writing topics. You can find more information on the website.

Mills and Boon is holding a Summer Sale...just click on this link and you can see what backlist books are up for grabs at FANTASTIC prices! There are also collections available, like this one, that have several anthologies included by some of your favourite authors!

And don't forget the Centenary contests where you can win fabulous prizes. Just go HERE to see what the latest offers are, put your name in and cross your fingers!

Monday, July 07, 2008

We're thrilled to have Jessica Hart with us this month for our Spotlight. Jessica is also offering a great prize to a lucky reader: a signed copy of her new release Newlyweds of Convenience, as well as a special Jessica Hart tote bag!

1. Where do you find new and fresh ideas?

Sometimes a song or a film can trigger a light bulb moment. For instance, the idea for the book I’m writing at the moment came about as a result of a discussion I had with a friend as we were driving back from seeing MADE OF HONOUR recently, and NEWLYWEDS OF CONVENIENCE (July 2008) was inspired by seeing a trailer for THE PAINTED VEIL. I really liked the idea of a woman falling in love with her own husband, and started to think about how that might work in a book. But I get most of my ideas from talking with friends. We go out and have a bottle of wine and thrash out our latest emotional crises, and it’s amazing how often a germ of an idea arises from those discussions … I’m always asking my accountant if my bar bill could be tax deductible!

2. Writers often use photos of celebrities as "casting". Do you do this,and who has inspired some of your characters?

Not really. I did have a photo of Patrick Dempsey modelling Versace stuck up by my computer when I was writing CINDERELLA’S WEDDING WISH (2009) but that was more for the way he was wearing the suit than any similarity with what my hero looked like. Otherwise, I tend not to have a very detailed image of my characters in mind. In real life I think attraction is often a gradual process, so I like to have heroes who seem quite ordinary-looking to begin with, but who become steadily irresistible to the heroine as she falls in love with him.

3. What are your favourite and least favourite parts of writing a novel? Isthere a particular section that you struggle with?

Struggle??? Oh, yes, indeedy! Chapter 7 on the first draft is my most common crisis point. It always feels like I’ve been writing and writing and I’m not getting anywhere, and that what I have done is an absolute disaster. Invariably I get to the point where I realise that I’m going to have to bite the bullet and rewrite entire book – ugh, I hate that moment! I think the bit I like best is plotting, which for me means sitting down with a friend and a bottle of wine and thrashing out the whys and wherefores of the back story. The story always has so much potential at this point, and I feel as if it’s going to be the best book ever - until I start writing! The truth is that I like being a writer, but I don’t really like writing that much … although I absolutely love typing ‘The End’!

4. When you are not writing, what do you do? How do you pamper yourself?

It’s embarrassing to realise how many of my favourite activities revolve around food and drink! I love cooking, and eating, and meeting friends for coffee or a glass of wine. One of my favourite evenings is playing bridge with fellow foodies, where we take it in turns to cook a special meal, and hunch over the cards until the small hours. I love to walk, too, although now have to leave my elderly dog behind, and my ideal holiday is walking somewhere wild with a big horizon. But really what I like to do best is to talk, and I don’t mind where I am or what I’m doing as long as I can have a really good conversation – maybe to make up for all the hours I have to sit silently in front of my computer! As for pampering, I always celebrate finishing a book in my lovely bathroom, lying back in a deep bath with candles, bubbles, music - and a glass of champagne.

5. Imagine you're stranded - where are you and who are you with?

It just so happens that the book I’m writing at the moment is set on a private island in the Maldives, so I wouldn’t mind being there in the shade of a leaning coconut palm, looking out at that perfect lagoon (in my mind, I already am!) and if I could be with someone who loves me the way Tom loves Imogen, that would be very nice!

6. Finally, Jessica, please tell us what's up and coming for you in themonths ahead!

I’m off to San Francisco for my very first RWA conference at the end of this month, so am looking forward to that with a mixture of excitement and trepidation. Barbara Hannay, Barbara McMahon and I are presenting a workshop on writing romance for a global audience, and will be talking about how to achieve the emotional tension that is key to Harlequin Romance, and that appeals to women around the world. It’s quite difficult trying to plan it when we live on three different continents, but we’re hoping the workshop will be fun as well as useful, so think of us on Friday 1 August!

September marks a personal milestone for me when I turn 50 (I’m trying to be brave about it) and by a happy coincidence my 50th book, Last-Minute Proposal, will be published in October. I’m already planning a party to celebrate both!

Thanks Jessica! To enter the monthly contest to win Newlyweds of Convenience AND the tote bag, drop a line to hrablog@hotmail.com with the subject line Jessica and we'll draw right around the time that she's giving that workshop! :-)

Discovering she's pregnant fills Annalise with joy! She doesn't have a clue about babies, but with her husband by her side, she's confident they can learn the ropes together….

But Dominic feels shell-shocked by the news. The truth is he's still reeling from an unhappy experience of parenthood from his past—a fact he's kept secret from everyone, even his beloved Annalise. So even while he longs to share her excitement, the fear that history might repeat itself is keeping him from the one person he loves most—his wife.

Now it's up to her to prove that Dominic really can be a daddy in a million!

Corporate wife Mallory McIver has promised her new husband a businesslike marriage, with no messy emotions involved.

For Worse?

Then Torr announces he's moving to the Highlands of Scotland to restore the derelict castle he's inherited. And he expects Mallory to accompany him….

Forever!

As Torr swaps his suits for jeans, Mallory is bewildered. She married a sophisticated city type, but in the country he's rugged, capable and altogether gorgeous…. Soon Mallory realizes she's breaking the terms of their arrangement—by falling for her own husband!

Single mom Natalie juggles creating fantastic cakes for the Wedding Belles with raising her troublesome twins. But her hard-won independence means she won't be decorating her own cake anytime soon….

Cooper Sullivan is a winner. He's competitive and at the top of his career. A new job leads him back to Natalie's door. Seeing her again after so many years makes Cooper realize that the only thing he never won—and the only thing that really matters—is Natalie's heart….

Nell Ruthven thought she'd missed her chance to be a mom when, at age nineteen, she was forced to give up her baby for adoption. Now Nell's discovered she has a tiny grandson in need of care. And her teenage sweetheart, cattleman Jacob Tucker, is in town….

At thirty-nine, this couple never thought they'd be parents, let alone grandparents! They never even thought they'd see each other again. But taking care of baby Sam gives them a second chance—maybe even a second chance to fall in love….

Time is running out for Prince Samman! In order to be crowned king, he must marry, but he has rejected all his advisors' suggestions. Then he is captivated by a unique pair of honey-colored eyes, and chooses Bria as his bride!

Bria Green is an intelligent, independent, modern woman. When Samman tells her she'll agree to his proposal within a week, Bria's sure the powerful prince won't get his way!

But in the scorching heat of the Adhara desert, Samman's heady kisses may change Bria's mind….

For gorgeous lawyer Nick Gilbert, an after-hours rendezvous with a woman usually means a romantic dinner, not a children's charity picnic. But he's game! Especially as his date is his rather prim but intriguing colleague, Carolyn Duff…. Watching her with the little kids, Nick sees a new side of Carolyn. He starts to understand the glimmer of sadness behind her dazzling green gaze. When the real woman behind the all—business facade is laid bare, Nick has never seen anyone more beautiful….